NASATalk and the Pursuit of Robust Learning
Tue Aug 2 2011
After participating in the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center (PSLC) summer learning lab institute July 26-29, Dr. Laurie Ruberg, associate director of the Center for Educational Technologies, home of the NASA-sponsored Classroom of the Future at Wheeling Jesuit University in Wheeling, WV, will moderate follow-up discussions growing from the institute via the NASATalk online collaborative.
Ruberg will explore how machine learning tools could be used to promote computer-mediated, academically productive collaborative learning among NASA STEM education projects.
The institute served as a productive way to catch up with new developments in the instructional design field with the benefit of hands-on project work in a collaborative learning group, Ruberg said. She noted that one area of discussion might focus on the use of intelligent tutors and computer-mediated scaffolding for learners in relation to the recently published K-12 framework for science education, which proposes that science educators look at learning as a "developmental progression" that helps children build on and revise their knowledge and abilities to develop a coherent view of the natural sciences and engineering. Using an empirically based understanding of learning that involves cognitive task analysis and intelligent scaffolding of learning will certainly be part of the process to help students achieve the goals outlined in the new science education framework, Ruberg said.
She invites comments about intelligent tutors, machine learning tools, and other education technologies at the NASATalk PSLC collaborative.
